THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 37 
extraordinary power in grasping, as well as aiding it 
in obtaining its prey. In other respects, with regard 
to its eyes, its antenne, its jaws, we shall find, if 
we carefully examine it, that, minute as it is, being 
scarcely an eighth of an inch long, its wants have 
been accurately remembered and well supplied. A 
few other British insects, likewise very small, dis- 
play similar instincts, some of them inhabiting holes 
in the sand, very near low-water mark, and there- 
fore entirely submerged a great portion of their 
time. 
On our rocky shores may be found in abundance 
creatures still more minute than these, whose man- 
ners, lively and sportive, are highly interesting. “I 
allude to the marine Hntomostraca, or insects with 
shells, and particularly to those of the genus Cythere, 
scarcely any of which exceed in diameter a large 
pin’s head, and most of them are not equal to that 
of a small one. Imagine a pair of bivalve shells of 
this size, irregularly oval, or kidney-shaped, from 
which, slightly separated, protrude four pairs of little 
curved claws, or feet, most delicately fringed, and 
kept in constant motion; and from one end a pair 
of jointed antenne. Mr. Baird, who has attentively 
studied their manners, gives the following pleasing 
account of them:—“These insects are only to be 
found in sea-water, and may be met with in all the 
little pools amongst the rocks on the sea-shores. 
They live amongst the Fuci and Conferve, &c., which 
are to be found in such pools; and the naturalist 
may especially find them in abundance in those 
beautiful clear little round wells which are so often 
D 
